


Praxis IV: Design for Survival!

by bungus5000



Category: university of toronto - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Alien Invasion, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, RPF, gratuitous engineering jargon, myhal centre for engineering innovation and entrepreneurship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25172176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bungus5000/pseuds/bungus5000
Summary: When the Zork Empire of Aliens descend upon Earth to begin yet another intergalactic conquest, they are expecting the blue and green planet and its inhabitants to be easy prey. However, the Zorks were foolish enough to neglect considering all their stakeholders- most importantly, humanity. Insulted by their poor design practice, the professors and students of the University of Toronto's Engineering Science department establish the last true bastion of humanity's resistance in the safe haven of the Myhal Centre of Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Will our intrepid heroes achieve verification and validation from the Zorks' defeat? or will they inevitably be scoped out of the grand opportunity of life?find out in Praxis IV: Design for Survival!
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. Positionality Statement: Zork Empire

Not so long ago, in a galaxy called the Milky Way, an empire was planning for its newest conquest.

The Zork Empire believed in maximum efficiency. Anything inefficient was not only worthy of destruction, but also repulsive to their footsoldiers- so much so that, occasionally, inefficient things were destroyed from orbit, in order to spare the soldiers the difficulty of attempting frontal assault. The empire also hated elevators. They believed that, thanks to their strange ring-shaped bodies, coated with biological adhesive film, traversing stairs and slopes was nothing of any real difficulty. Some individuals had film so strong, they could even traverse vertical slopes. 

Naturally, following the property of additivity, the Zork Empire hated inefficient elevators above all else. And so it was, upon engaging conquest of a small blue and green planet called “Earth”, that the empire discovered its most repulsive and loathed enemy stronghold. The Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation and Design.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no flames pls r&r  
> also if the profs read this please don't hate me


	2. Positionality Statement: EngSci 2T3

As it turns out, Myhal’s repulsive nature was not exclusive to the positionality of the Zorks. The 2T3 class of Engineering Science did, in fact, share their low opinion of the building. But they felt much, much less vitriol towards it, opting to make occasional jokes rather than declare the necessity of its destruction. Indeed, the class in question happens to be within the widely loathed building at the exact moment of the Zork invasion. Not just anywhere in the building, either- no, they sat in the Lee and Margaret Lau Auditorium, better known as MY150. This was the room in which they participated in perhaps the most iconic class in their curriculum. This… was where they took Praxis.

The EngSci 2T3’s were acutely unaware of the Zork Empire’s impending conquest. In fact, they were only really interested in a few things. The meme being displayed on the giant screens at the front of the room, and the commentary of their cargo-clad professor. That, and their impending coding lab- but talk of the coding lab was strictly forbidden, lest said Professor catch on to the fact that more than half the class were too preoccupied with their IDEs to consider the important lessons on claim-argument form. 

However, all of that would swiftly change. Because as the rest of the world was being assaulted and overtaken by the alien forces, Myhal would remain mysteriously untouched by ground forces. And soon, it would stand as the last bastion of human resistance.


	3. Lecture 1: The Alien Apocalypse and You!

Professor Jason A. Foster stood before the class of EngSci 2T3, clicker in one hand and mic positioned over his ear as if it was an integral part of his anatomy. Praxis lectures were, of course, his prime domain. It was his kingdom, over which he wielded significant ethos. His students stared at him from their tables with varying levels of attentiveness- it was not uncommon that around half the class were more occupied with their coding labs or discord discussions than with the lecture content. They didn't know it, but he was well aware of this- because Foster, of course, knew all. 

It was because of this omniscience that Foster abruptly became aware of a sudden influx of activity and exigence just beyond the borders of his domain. That, and his Apple™ Apple Watch™ buzzing upon his wrist; which, upon investigation, had an urgent communique from his Contacts- informing him that the invasion had begun. 

Foster had known the Zork Empire was planning their invasion. However, he hadn’t quite gotten to the point of discussing invasion contingency plans with the class. It had, of course, been in lecture plans for over a week, but Praxis always, _always_ ran overtime. 

Well, now was the time. As he understood it, the campus, and likely the building itself, was soon to be assaulted by hostile forces, and given that the majority of the class’ experience with warfare was limited to their tacky first-person shooter video games, they were going to need some very strong guidance. Luckily for them, Foster was a benevolent genius. He’d already written an algorithm for contingency formulation, and had found many standards and resources for them to form the ground of their claims upon. 

He reached for his trusty red alert button, hidden in the side of his cargo pants for emergency use only. Said emergency use was only warranted in a certain list of scenarios, which he had already prepared for himself- the students hadn’t managed to create sentient rubber ducks that had become malevolent, they hadn’t created self-aware robots that had decided to initiate the destruction of humanity, and the local stores certainly weren’t out of cargo pants. However, Alien Invasion did sit on the list- just near the bottom. He briefly considered moving the invasion up on the list- but remembered that upon its creation he had done a rigorous comparison using every known method. 

Reaffirmed in his own logos, he hit the button, and listened as a combination of air horn, bwaaaaam, and siren noises played from the MY150 speakers. Auto-turrets, which he had painstakingly constructed and programmed during a night of boredom, activated in the Myhal lobby. A plasma shield, which he’d consulted with Vutha, Stangeby, Davis, Cluett, Ruda, and many other of his fellow faculty members on the construction of, activated over the auditorium doors. The whiteboard at the front of the room slid apart like in a spy movie- no one had ever realized it, since the whiteboard had never been used or even acknowledged, but it hid a small closet within which the professors kept their most guarded possessions- their armaments.

The students watched in a wonderful mixture of fear, astonishment, glee, and horror as a series of weapons that looked like they’d been spit out of a sci-fi flick were revealed. The teaching team, having received the same notification as Foster, quickly retrieved their arms- plasma and lasers abound. Foster himself was always armed, however; he reached into his cargo pants pocket, and pulled out his own, specially crafted anti-alien rifle. 

“How the fuck did you fit that in your pocket?!” Someone in the class yelled. There was a period of silence. Foster decided not to explain that his cargo pants had been modified to warp the fabric of spacetime within his pockets, electing not to reveal the true reason behind his infatuation with his most prized garments. Otherwise, that would compromise the market. After all, cost was a factor in his pants convergence process alongside carrying capacity and ethos augmentation.

“Folks, congratulations.” he said instead. “You are officially a stronghold against the apocalypse.”

Foster elected to display the campus security camera feed- it had been a breeze to hack into for such an experienced systems engineer. On the large MY150 screens, Zorks could be seen firing their strange alien weapons, which ejected blasts of some strange purple-looking energy. Plasma, laser, they had yet to determine- but there were live people prior to contact with the energy, and dead people after- which left Foster to assume it was killing them. Granted, of course, this could have been cargo cultism at work- it was entirely possible that the humans they were observing were dropping dead of some other mechanism, of course, but for the time being, he would simply have to rely on his intuition. Besides, if anyone were to fall prey to cargo cultism, he imagined it would be most poetic for it to be him.

“What the _fuck_ ,” someone in Delta row said. There were murmurs of agreement from across the lecture hall. 

“Aliens are invading.” Foster told them frankly. He had no time or mental energy to beat around the bush- there were aliens that needed killing. “For now, we’re protected- the rest of your professors and I have put a design solution in place for the initial opportunity of providing a defensible stronghold- but as you are all aware, design is an iterative process. And so we come to phase two.”

The intro slide scrolled cheerfully into place, declaring the title of today’s debacle. 

#  **The Alien Apocalypse and You:**

**Zork Empire * Anatomy of a Zork * Zork Culture**

**Weapon Design * Defense Strategies * Resource List**


	4. Lecture 1.1: Framing the Apocalypse

“...Zorks have soft, fleshy exterior coatings, but their insides are protected by a layer of strong and solid organic material. We haven’t heard back from the medsci building on what that is, exactly, so you know what that means-” there was a collective groan, save from the biomed students, who seemed excited at the prospect. “-research. I’ve posted all the available analytics to the course downloads, so I suggest you all head over there now and pull the info.” Foster told the class. “Now, you’re going to want to take a look at reference designs, try and determine as much about their design flaws as possible, and how those can be improved upon.”

By improved upon, he meant “killed without mercy”. He hoped that was clear, but then again, the class never really seemed to understand the exact purpose of the tasks they were being given. He decided to clarify. 

“So. take two minutes at your table, discuss strategies for killing Zorks based on their vulnerabilities. Go.”

The 2T3 EngScis had no idea how to respond to the new information being handed to them, and many of the members of the class considered the idea of the scenario being a convoluted prank. The conclusion was obtained that this form of prank was fairly out of character for their illustrious instructors, save perhaps Foster himself, and thus the likelihood of it being a prank was low. It was therefore determined that there were few real alternatives beyond the least enjoyable one- Foster was telling the truth. 

So, like when Davis or D’Eleuterio presented a ridiculously convoluted proof, the students gave in to necessity, opened their minds, and attempted to absorb as much as their brimming brain buckets could handle. 

To someone who’d never interacted with a class of EngScis, this would seem extremely unrealistic; perhaps they would expect screaming, crying, and most importantly, skepticism of the highest level. But the fact of the matter was, EngScis saw too much bullshit on a regular basis to be fazed by anything anymore. Their collective logos from analysing the situation, Foster and the Teaching Team’s incredible ethos, and the pathos of watching humans disintegrate all indicated that aliens invading was the truth, and so they accepted it as probable and moved the fuck on to a solution. 

This was one reason why they would not fall to the Zorks, at least for the day. The other reason was that they’d unwittingly found the ideal stronghold- because with the building being so repulsive, what few alien footsoldiers could bring themselves to approach were quickly gunned down by autoturrets. 

Yes, for today, the EngSci class of 2T3 was safe. But soon enough, they would have to step up- because the rest of humanity depended on it.


End file.
